The number of non-EU migrants coming to the UK to work and study soared in the first year of Britain’s post-Brexit immigration system, official figures have revealed.
Home Office immigration figures for the whole of last year revealed there were 239,987 work-related visas granted, 25 per cent higher than in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. Less than a tenth were EU migrants, who had to obtain a visa from January last year after the end of freedom of movement.
The main driver of the sharp increase in work-related immigration since 2019 came from migrants from outside the EU.
The number of foreign students also soared last year, hitting a record high of 416,000, up by more than a half compared with 2019.
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